I ccccan't feel my ffffingers...

Oh. My. God. I finished the Farolito 5k about two hours ago and I'm just starting to warm up. I cannot believe how cold that run was. The weather sites I've checked said it was/is about 30* but the winds were out of control and the "feels like" temp was around 20*...and I believe that. We got to the Academy about 10 minutes to 5 (race time was 5.30) and met up with Denise and Francine. Francine was already threatening to skip the running and go straight to the hot chocolate we were planning on for afterwards, and in retrospect, that may not have been a horrible idea. Being that this was an Athletes Edge race, it was no surprise that a) the start line was 100 miles away from the finish line AND where everyone was gathering, so we had to hike to that (did I mention it was like 20* outside? And it really felt like 3*?) and b) it started late. I have no clue how late because my jacket sleeve is hard to pull up over my watch and by that time my fingers were frozen and in pain, but it felt like we waited about 4 hours, so we'll go with that. I stand by my well-known and earlier documented dislikement of AE.

So we get started and Denise says something along the lines of "We're really weird people for doing this." I can't help it, I have to correct her. Maybe the freezing wind froze her brain for a second or something, but we weren't weird...we were eff'ing insane for doing that...although that didn't stop us. We took one walk break at Mile 1 but it wasn't long. The course was dark and outlined in the farolitos...it was gorgeous, but if Denise didn't have her headlamp, I'm sure I would have face planted into the ground somewhere along the way. The course wound it's way through the Academy on the road, through some parking lots, across the campus, on a small, dirt path (not for long...again, I would have died if it hadn't been for Denise's headlamp...my lamp was safely in the car) and we finished with one lap around the (icy...yes, ICY) track. We finished in 39:48. Not great, but under 40:00. The hubs was there in time to watch me finish but he headed to the car immediately after. We wrapped up the night with a huge special hot chocolate at Starbucks and the hubs and I picked up some dinner on our way home. I now sit here with a beer as I relay the heroic story to you all.

All in all, this could be a fun race. The dark is scary...not because I'm afraid of mosters jumping out at me but because I have an insane fear of falling (seriously, I can't walk through a parking lot without thinking about falling). But even without my insane fear, it was just really dark and I think a headlamp is necessary for this race...the farolitos are pretty, but they don't create much light. AE needs to be more organized, but I've been saying this for months (I couldn't even get safety pins when I picked up our packets). There were no water stops along the course, which wasn't an issue for me, but for others it may have been (had this been during the day or in the summer, I would be raising hell). I'm not sure that I'll be doing this again next year. I think it'd be fun, but I'd probably be more willing to chicken out if the weather was this nasty.